Most American men have nothing in common with a billionaire – but he spoke to their resentment and anxiety

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Donald Trump has won the White House again. From the very beginning of his first administration, marked by his “Muslim ban”, until its end, marred by a violent riot at the US Capitol, the former president was fueled by the anger of his largely white, male base. These are often men who have few similarities to billionaires such as Trump, but who have felt their social and financial status threatened by some “other”, whether real or imagined. Trump and his Republican party have long tapped into that resentment.

There were the cancel culture mobs, the Marxists and the immigrants. Before that, the commies and the race agitators. Most recently, the CRT boogeymen, the “woke left” and the DEI hires – all these epithets serving as dog whistles, in historical terms and contemporary ones, for racial and ethnic groups who chip away at the financial security of white “real Americans”.

Malaika Jabali is a 2024 New America fellow, journalist and author of It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism: Why It’s Time to Break Up and How to Move On